Sports and politics

Big sport and big politics have always gone hand in hand in recent history. There are countless examples of this. And it was not our country that was the pioneer here.

To demonstrate to the world the viability of the theory of racial superiority, Hitler welcomed his compatriots - the winners of the Berlin Olympics - to the podium, refusing this to Olympians of “non-Aryan” origin. The Soviet government allowed our athletes to participate only in those competitions where the chances of winning were not just great - where ours could immediately jump into the “gold”. Because this is not just a victory for the national team - it is a victory of the Soviet system over its enemies. But if the first place floated away... After the defeat of the USSR national football team at the 1952 Helsinki Olympics from the team of Yugoslavia, the country where the obstinate Marshal Tito reigned, Stalin gave the order to disband the basis of the Soviet team - the legendary “team of lieutenants”.

The end of the past and the beginning of this century show that sports and politics are close together in countries with very different political climates.

To raise the mythical national spirit, President of Belarus Lukashenko personally goes onto the ice with a stick in the uniform of the national team. The recent Prime Minister of Italy Berlusconi is going to the elections under the slogan: “Forza Italia!”, the traditional cry of the tiffosi. In general, most modern politicians use this tool, and more and more willingly and skillfully. On the eve of the elections, few people will refuse the opportunity to “show up” in front of the electorate in an embrace with the heroes of the Olympics and World Championships. When the same Berlusconi (or, say, Sarkozy) had political complications on the domestic front, they hurried to the football field.

Authoritarian rulers use athletes even more shamelessly: being the official “inspirers of victories,” they are happy to sign up as co-authors of sporting achievements and patronize outstanding athletes who, however, have no experience in either political activity or legislation, but instantly become deputies.

Managers also understand all problems without exception. Including, of course, in football. But at the end of the day, everything turns out to be nothing, because here the result of their actions is visible quite quickly. And arbitrariness and tyranny will not simply ensure victory. Even if powerful (albeit according to orders) “rear support” from oligarchs and major officials is organized. Alas, we have no other methods in our arsenal.

And there is no hope in this situation that someone wise will come from outside, who will decide for us our problems, putting pressure, threatening, etc. FIFA - we somehow already forgot about this - is very jealous of the independent states to the status of national federations, and at the slightest violation of this very status does not hesitate to impose harsh punitive sanctions. But in the Blatter era, FIFA has turned into a closed authoritarian structure, which relies on a clearly defined vertical of power and which itself is regularly rocked by corruption scandals. There is no time to restore order here.

After all, Sepp Blatter has learned to answer many provocative questions about where, how and in what ways the Russian side is deviating from regulatory norms, to answer briefly and unambiguously: “Russia is a special case.”

It doesn’t matter whether Fursenko sits or no longer sits in the RFU. As long as government officials and billionaire oligarchs sit there, the football opposition, no matter how constructive it may be, will break at the knees. Is it, for example, a secret that when resolving such a fundamental issue as the transition of the national championship to the “autumn-spring” system, there were essentially no discussions? Fursenko proposed the project, and the executive committee of the RFU enthusiastically supported it. A normal, familiar pattern, a copy of the morals of today. And if the surname had been any other, nothing would have changed.

The unrestrained waste of other people's money, characteristic of the establishment, contradicts common sense: after all, the majority (of those who even think a little) understand that state-owned companies simply do not have the right to throw huge (and, of course, irrevocable) investments into non-core assets. Then new participants in the football market come. And they are even more recklessly blowing up the market with crazy purchases and crazy contracts.

Everyone needs to talk about football lawlessness and loudly. Don’t talk - even shout before it’s too late, because the money of these corporations is our money. It would be reasonable to oblige state-owned companies, which generously allocate funds (not for the development of football, I emphasize, but for the maintenance of clubs), to spend expenses exclusively at the expense of the net profit of the corporate budget - the one from which top management issues multimillion-dollar bonuses to themselves and their entourage.

This whole public thinks that they are doing something useful for the country. In fact, they are obsessed with the idea of ​​winning at least something on the international stage - this is where, for example, the gigantic expenses come from.

At the same time, companies backed by a powerful state roof are naturally not subject to inspections: management does not even communicate information about non-core expenses to its shareholders. However, only the narrow-minded are not aware of who exactly sponsors this or that club, who gave money to the RFU, for coaches and for the maintenance of the national team.

It’s actually scary that Russian football is ruled this way. The knowledge of a narrow circle of real specialists, by and large, is of no interest to anyone. It would probably be stupid to talk about some purely Russian “shoals”. Big politics and big sport, as we have already found out, always go hand in hand. So why not use this connection for good? Not to build a football base in Skolkovo, not to organize the next Potemkin villages, but to deal with football itself and its development?

If in our country political will is required to implement any major project, then we will wait for its manifestation.